The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-10-29
Moral Ideas.


was once called "the God and Moral
ity party" Thereupon it achieved
victory, and those who derided its
claim to be the party of moral ideas
were compelled to admit that its APP
peal to the public sense of duty had
proved powerful enough to bury old
Issues and old parties. Emancipa-
ton, reconstruction, reimbursement
raised questions of right and wrong.
These in turn drove the deep plough
share of change through the political
soil, and parties were readjusted in
membership, leadership and aims to
meet new issues of moral obligation.
Ancient politicians of the spoils-
hunting era sneered and snarled, but
in spite of them selfish interest was
subordinated to the demands of duty.
We may be sure that the world has
not gone backward. Greed and gain
have not usurped the place of duty
as the ruling motive in political ac-
ton. The Democratic politicians who
imagine that a party can be butt up
and impregnably fortified by cunning
division of the offices are to learn
their error. After four years of shirk-
ing every duty and breaking every
pledge. they will have to answer
voters who ask: ''If the public SER
vice was full of rottenness, why have
you not reformed it? IF the tariff is
a robbery of the many for the few,
why have you attempted no radical
change? If the Government was in
the interest Of employers and monop-
olists. what have you done to restore
the rights of labor"
The only living issues which go
deep and tend to change the future OF
parties are those which involve moral
obligation. New parties enlist the
support of considerable bodies OF
voters because they claim to embody
more truly than any old party the
conceptions of duty which govern
conscientious voters. The Democratic
party will be ground to powder if it
cannot show that it cares for the con-
dition and welfare of working men
and women more wisely than the
party which Mr.. George and Father
McGlynn are leading. The Republi-
can party. in like manner. has to con-
vince conscientious voters that it
deals more wisely and justly with
the evil of intemperance and the
traffic in liquor than the party which
urges prohibition in all places and for
all sorts of communities alike.
1t is the notion of oId-fashioned
politicians that the tariff and finan-
cial questions have nothing to do
with moral obligations that they
concern only the selfish interests of
different classes of citizens. The an
swer of the Republican party is that
American labor is protected, not Cor
the benefit OF employers. but to Sc
cnre for the laboring men of this
country conditions consistent with
their rights as moral beings, as nus
bands and fathers, and as citizens of II
self-governing country. If protec.
ton does not meet that test. if it il
not required as duty of the fortu-
nate and powerful to the many who
toll and suffer, then Mr.. George has
some reason to expect Republican AS
well as Democratic supporters. So
the Democratic politician tries to con-
sider the liquor traffic as one which.
like any other branch of business.
concerns only the gain of individuals
by legitimate industry. If he cannot
show that his hostility to oil regula-
ton of that traffic is as justifiab.e a.
hostility to any interference with the
sale of bread and meat and the ne
cessaries of life, he stands condemned,
whether prohibition is the wisesl
remedy or not. Neral ideas tn n the
scale. If the Republican party is
right. restraints of the liquor traffic
that is in each locality practicable,
and adapted to the state of public
sentiment, is more effective and more
Just than a prohibition which often
proves impracticable and useless. Ii
the Republican party is right, bar
riers against foreign competition
with free land for every industrious
settler, do more to uplift the condi-
ton of the worker, more to insure
his independence, more to discharge
the duty of the State to its laborins
citizens, than can be done by all the
theories of Mr.. George and his asso-
ciates.- Tribune.
"You have heard the expression,